So You Found a New Customer, Now What?

Landing a sale is not the end-game, it’s the beginning. So you found a new customer – now what? Use these ten marketing ideas to get them to come back again.

A new customer has made a purchase or signed a contract – yay you; what you do with a new customer after the sale matters even more.

Once you have attracted a new customer, you must have a game plan for turning them into a repeat customer. And from there you should earn loyalty. And then brand advocacy. But too often we act as though landing a new customer means game over when it should be just the beginning. So you found a new customer… Now what? Here are ten marketing ideas that can help you master the art of getting first time customers to bounce back into your business.

New customer bounce back ideas

 

10 New Customer Bounce Back Marketing Ideas

1. Go for broke.

Sometimes we’re afraid to even ask for a sale, let alone a big one. But people who spend more on a first transaction are 2x as likely to return than those that “dip their toes in the water” with a small purchase. (Dane Atkinson, Chief Executive of SumAll, on foxbusiness.com)

2. Release customer rewards as a series of new rewards over time.

Get people into the habit of opening your emails and visiting your website and social networks often in order to find out “what’s coming next” whether that be in a product series a series of customer rewards that change over time.

3. Provide personalized attention.

Stop thinking that one-size-fits-all when it comes to your customer’s interests. Based on buying behavior, demographics or even customer-supplied feedback, personalize your customer offers and communications.

4. Follow up with an offer right away.

Follow up as soon as possible with a new customer (this implies you have a plan for collecting an email address, mailing address or mobile phone number for each new customer) with a bounce back offer based on their initial purchase.

5. Incentivize purchases of accessories or add-ons.

When new models, upgrades, add-on products or accessories hit the shelves (or even before), you have a golden opportunity to reach out to customers with an announcement or special offer.

6. Socialize the shopping experience.

BOGOs, group rates, girlfriend events and other socializing factors can bring new customers in the door and make their shopping experience less like shopping and more like fun.

7. Ask for feedback (and act on any you receive).

Asking for feedback from a new customer can help you identify areas for improvement in your customer experience as well as your products or services. Asking new customers for feedback to determine why new customers may not want to come back to your business may be especially important – and helpful – if you have a high customer churn rate.

8. Package services as subscriptions.

Pre-paid services and other subscriptions might allow you to lower the cost-per-visit for a customer (and gain a competitive advantage) while actually increasing your profitability over time. This can cut costs on customer-acquisition marketing and allow you to more accurately forecast the level of inventory and supplies you will need to have on hand to meet customer demand. Pre-sales of products or services can also put money into your pocket ahead of time, enabling you to meet operating costs and maintain a more consistent cash flow.

9. Know the shelf life of products or services.

Knowing when your customer should be coming back for a follow up service, product maintenance or product replacement gives you the opportunity to extend a special offer to return to your business ahead of time.

10. Last – but certainly not least – make sure the first experience a customer has with your business is unique, exceptional and memorable in some way.

Whether it’s a first time customer or a loyal brand advocate, the most important customer visit is always the last one – because that sets the stage for the next one. Analyze your customer experience from the first point of contact to the last touch and work to design aspects that are memorable and buzz-worthy in order to generate repeat visits and word of mouth referrals.

You need a new customer bounce-back strategy.

It can be tempting to forgo development and implementation of a formal customer bounce back marketing program, especially if you feel like you have enough new customers coming in the front door to compensate for customer defections.

But just take a look at some of the statistics provided in a recent SumAll study that explain why customer retention and loyalty programs matter as much or more than client-acquisition strategies:

  • As much as 25-40% of total business revenues come from repeat business
  • Businesses with a 40% level of repeat customers generated 47% more revenue than similar businesses that had only 10% of customers returning
  • Returning customers spend 2.6 more than one-time buyers and tend to spend more on each purchase
  • Purchases made by repeat customers come along with higher profit margins because the business has few – if any – added costs associated with acquiring the customer
  • 27% of first time customers will make a future purchase, but customers who have purchased four times have a nearly 60% chance of coming back again

Despite the many financial benefits that businesses with a high percentage of loyal customers enjoy, many businesses don’t have a plan for turning first time customers into repeat customers and loyal brand advocates. As a result, few businesses devote a significant portion of their marketing budget into customer retention and loyalty strategies.

Landing a new client or getting a new customer in the door is not the end-game, it’s just the beginning. These ten marketing ideas can help you turn first time customers into repeat customers and lay the foundation for long term, loyal customer relationships, by mastering the art of the customer bounce back.

You might also like: What Does an Ideal Customer Experience Look Like, Anyway?

2 replies

Trackbacks & Pingbacks

  1. […] make sure you’re marketing for the bounce back. *68% of those who redeemed daily deal offers came back again without an additional […]

  2. […] marketing and the point of sale to capture customer contact information so that you can extend a bounce back offer in the New Year (or even another offer during the holiday season).  And be sure that you […]

Comments are closed.